Voting rights advocates in Ohio say they know one thing is for certain when it comes to legislation disenfranchising voters: If the current U.S. Congress doesn’t do it, the Republicans in the Ohio General Assembly surely will.
All in the name of eliminating a “problem” that is virtually non-existent: preventing non-citizens from voting in federal elections.
Voting by non-citizens is something that has been illegal in the U.S. since 1924, when Calvin Coolidge was president.
“We know that voter fraud is extremely rare,’’ said Kelly Dufour, voting and elections manager of Common Cause Ohio. “It begs the question of why state and federal legislators would want to gut a voting system that works so well.”
Dufour and other voting rights advocates are battling against bills in the U.S. Congress and in the Ohio Statehouse which, if passed, could end up disenfranchising millions of voters, particularly women, young people, and people serving overseas in the military.
In Congress, there is the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act,” better known as the SAVE Act. Last week, it passed the U.S. House 220-208, with four Democrats joining 216 Republicans in voting in favor. It now moves on to the U.S. Senate, where Republicans have 53 of the 100 seats.
In the Ohio Statehouse, the equivalent of the SAVE Act is Senate Bill 153, sponsored by two GOP senators, Theresa Gavarone of Bowling Green and Andrew Brenner of Delaware.
Both pieces of legislation, state and federal, do essentially the same thing:
- Require people who want to register to vote or update their voting information to provide documentation of their status as citizens — either with a birth certificate or a passport.
- Documentation would have to be presented in person at their local boards of elections, in effect ending the online registration that 42 states — including Ohio — have for their citizens.
- The bills also would effectively end the very common practice of organizations conducting voter registration drives, as most people don’t carry their passports or birth certificates around with them.
Recent numbers from the State Department show that about half of all American citizens do not have a passport. And it costs $130 to get one.
The Center for American Progress says there are 69 million women in the U.S. who have taken the names of their spouses, which means they can’t produce a birth certificate that matches their current name. And that is a requirement of both bills.
Military service members overseas will no longer be able to use their military IDs to register. And they certainly can’t up and leave their overseas posts to show up in person at their hometown election boards.
The impact also is likely to frustrate many young voters ages 18-24, who tend to have frequent address changes.
Dufour said she is the mother of two college students. In anticipation of the passage of these bills, she said she has had to make sure both of her kids have up-to-date documentation should they need to change their voting addresses.
“We have over seven million people in Ohio who don’t have access to passports or original birth certificates,” Dufour said. “They are creating totally unnecessary problems for people who simply want to vote.”
Proponents argue its 'common sense;' opponents say 'voter suppression'
In March, when Gavarone and Brenner introduced Senate Bill 153, the two Republicans argued that it is a necessary fix for Ohio’s election laws.
“Having only legal voters cast a ballot in each election should be common sense,’’ Brenner said.
Gavarone said the bill “addresses areas of the election law that we can improve, including an extra layer of protection to enforce our state’s constitutional requirement.”
“This is a simple fix that strengthens trust and integrity in our institutions,” Gavarone said.
But U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman, a Mt. Washington Democrat who voted no on the SAVE Act, said he believes such legislation is an extension of the GOP voter suppression that has been going on since 2013, when the U.S. Supreme Court took the teeth out of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which established the principle of one person, one vote.
“The Supreme Court not only gutted it, they got rid of the 1965 Voting Rights Act,” Landsman said. “Ever since, it’s been a field day for those who want to suppress the vote for people who disagree with them.”
Making citizens go out and spend money on passports and original birth certificates is the “modern equivalent of the poll taxes in the Jim Crow era,” Landsman said. “People should not have to spend money to cast a ballot.”
The SAVE Act has passed the House, but it could fail in the Senate — just as it did last year.
Republicans hold only 53 votes in the Senate, far short of the 60 votes they would need to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
“I’m not even sure (Republicans) have 50 votes in the Senate for this,” Landsman said.
Americans as a whole may be off the hook on the SAVE Act, although the MAGA crowd in the House will keep trying as long as they have a majority.
Ohio voters may not be so lucky.
Both the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate have veto-proof Republican super-majorities.
So if what they want is a law that pretends to chase down imaginary non-citizen voters at the expense of real people who have every right to vote, they can very likely do it.
Read more:
